P r o f i d e s THE AMAZONIAN PEOPLES'RESOURCES INITIATIVE: Promoting Reproductive Rights and Community Development in the Peruvian Amazon Bartholomew Dean, Eliana Elias Valdeavellano, Michelle McKinley, and Rebekah Saul [R]eproductive rights ... rest on the recognition of the basic right of couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so, and the right to attain the high- est standard of sexual and reproductive health . .. [taking] into account the needs of their living and future children and their responsibilities towards the community. The promotion of the responsible exercise of these rights for all people should be the fundamental basis for ... community-supported policies and pro- grammes in the area of reproductive health.... Programmeof Action adopted at the International Conference on Population and Development, Cairo, 1994, Paragraph7.3 IFounded in 1995, the Amazonian Peoples' Resources Initiative (APRI) is a human rights organization working Bartholomew Dean, PhD, is an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Kansas and the research director of the Amazonian People's Resources Initiative (APRI). Eliana Elias Valdeavellano is the executive director of Minga-Peru. Michelle McKinley, JD, is the director of APRI. Rebekah Saul is a research and public policy associate at APRI. Please address correspondence to the authors care of Bartholomew Dean, 202 SpoonerHall, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA or to
[email protected]. Copyright C 2000 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. HEALTH AND HuMAN RIGHTS 219 The President and Fellows of Harvard College is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to Health and Human Rights ® www.jstor.org with rural and indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon.